The People of the Spear (Chapter)
People of the Spear Shortly after saving Ceridwyn, 3 snowy monsters appeared and attacked. They were about the size of wolves, but they could slide across the snow, and had some ice spines and an ice attack. When they were injured, their blood was acidic. After they died, we cleaned our weapons with cloth. We learned they were called Krithik (which eventually we learned was Larry mis-speaking, they are really called "Kruthik"). The party was able to help Durus and Ceridwyn get enough fatigue to carry themselves again, but they were very limited on acting. Psionics were probably out of the question. Aka, Shiroth, Durus, and Ceridwyn took shelter in a nearby abandoned/ruined tower's bottom floor to get out of the cold. Shiroth got a chance to hunt. They did land in the middle of somewhere cold, and it was beginning to hit them. The rest of the party went to look for better shelter. They were faced with first one, then two Ice Worms. They proved too difficult to fight, until Zaran had everyone drop lantern oil on it and set it ablaze. The party was relatively easily able to make their way to a fort afterwards. The fort was specifically designed to be a place of rest of travellers, and Zaran had an arrangement with them. They were named such, for the large spear at the top of the fort. It was a powerful artifact they worshiped, and it could be used for large magical effects. The party was gathered, and we slept there for the night. Humanimeaux - Humanx The next day we continued along the path to the next fort. However this time it was strangely left abandoned. We did some early exploring, and didn't find much before we quickly ran into some animal people. Both groups were highly cautious of each other. Durus began transforming into a Were-Rat voluntarily to try to communicate. They realized he was becoming an animal, and helped ease his transformation. We slowly worked out a way to communicate. Kalæt was then able to use language points to learn the language of the weasels fully. Our party then learned their full situation of being hunted for their furs by the People of the Spear and decided to help them. As we talked with their chief, name here, we were told of their name for themselves, the Humanx. Kalæt refused to translate when he began speaking of the origins of the Spear, as the Pent Elves had an interest in keeping Laen a secret. We got food and warmth for their babies. We then went about exploring the fort so they could secure it better for themselves. Hinode fell for a spike pit trap that some of us thought was obvious. In all fairness, while expecting a trap was smart, nobody had any real idea that the floor would open up like that. We went through a lot of the building without finding much of use. There were a lot of barracks and personal or sentimental items belonging to the soldiers. In the basement we found some hostile People of the Spear and their burial crypt. In the robes of their priest or leader or something we found a simple copper ring. We later learned the sinister nature of this ring, and were thankful that none of us wanted to put it on without identifying it. After dealing with the People of the Spear in the chambers, we took their witchfire throwers and the remaining ammunition. Durus realized they could use telekinesis to remove the witchfire stuck to them. We found a hidden chamber in the middle, and had to dismantle a dart trap, and a witchfire trap. We disarmed the trap and took the weapons from it. The hidden chamber was also a command chamber, and where the armory and vault was. The Humanimeaux told us we could take whatever we thought was a reasonable reward from the vault. Many of the party tried to get away with taking more than was reasonable. Milo and Aka got extra gems via stealing. Durus argued his way into a coin worth 100 gold for his family. The rest took small cups full of gold pieces. Velephia obtained a set of plate armor for someone her height by rolling a 1 on a d20... for a set of plate armor fitting a 6'8'' female. Everyone got Humanimeaux safety charms, so their kind would know us as friends wherever we encountered them.